Special Checking Facilities:

Inter-function Value Tracking -- The powerful inter-statement value tracking crosses function boundaries. Functions called with specific values are later processed, with these values used to initialise parameters.

Multi-Pass -- To take full advantage of inter-function tracking and static variable tracking, a multi-pass operation has been introduced. The user can control the number of passes.

withvalue tracking as an enabling technology, we support ‘semantics’ checking for almost 100 library functions, this checking can be extended to user functions

optionalstrong
type checking(typedef-based) with a rich option set to detect nominal type differences. You can even form a fully checked type hierarchy of scalar types using onlytypedef

Performance:

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FAQ

What is Static Analysis?

PC-lint will look across your entire program that may consist of many C and/or C++ modules and find bugs, glitches, inconsistencies, and redundancies. It can find problems that may not be caught in initial testing. Some bugs lie dormant for months and years and their ultimate eradication can be time consuming and expensive. It pays to expose errata while the code is still fresh in the mind of the programmer and while the original programmer is still employed by the company responsible for the software.

Won't my compiler do syntax checking?

Compilers do an excellent job of finding syntax errors and most will produce warnings. But PC-lint and FlexeLint begin where compilers leave off. PC-lint contains numerous features such as precision tracking, initialisation checking, value tracking, strong type checking and macro analysis that compilers do not have. Also PC-lint/FlexeLint looks across a set of modules to find intermodule inconsistencies and redundancies. This compilers do not do.

Does C++ make lint obsolete?

ANSI C and C++ have solved the problem for which Unix lint was originally developed, i.e., to ensure consistency of function calls across module boundaries. But most other sources of errors in C code remain in C++. These include uninitialised variables, order of evaluation dependencies, loss of precision, potential uses of the null pointer, etc. (See Representative Checks on the next page). In addition to problems inherited from C, C++ has added new opportunities and requirements for static checking. For example, it is now possible to report that a constructor has not initialised a member. This deficiency could not be reported for C code because responsibility for initialisation is not uniquely assigned to a given function (i.e. there are no constructors in C). There have been numerous articles and books on the C++ language written by such prominent authors as Cargill, Koenig, Murray and Myers describing numerous do’s and don’ts. Although it is a formidable task for even the expert to hand check each line of source code for conformity to accepted principles of good design, such checks can be automated and most have been incorporated in PC-lint.

How do I separate the wheat from the chaff?

We have taken several steps so that our users are not inundated by a mass of insignificant messages in which they may have no particular interest. All messages are carefully crafted to make use of all available information so that they have an inherently high wheat-to-chaff ratio. We have four levels of message (Error, Warning, Informational and Elective Note) and distinguish between two kinds of header (library headers vs. project headers). Messages can be suppressed by number, by symbol, by macro, by line and by header type. Through a selection of options, you in effect tailor your own subset of the C/C++ language.

Installation

On Windows, running the setup program will copy the PC-lint files onto your hard drive. Running the configuration wizard (config.exe) will configure PC-lint for your compiler, libraries, editors and IDEs. It may be run multiple times if you have multiple configurations you need support for. It will build a batch file for running PC-lint (lin.bat) and will invoke the appropriate PC-lint configuration files for your environment.
On MS-DOS and OS/2, run the install program and follow the directions.

Running PC-lint

By default, PC-lint is a console application and is run from the command line.

PC-lint can be run directly, by using a batch script, lin.bat, which is built for you by the config program, or it can be invoked from within a make file.

If you are using an editor or IDE, you may be able to set up PC-lint to run as a tool from within the IDE.